November 19, 2010 - The web is on fire with articles, blogs and commentaries about Bristol Palin’s win over Brandy this week on Dancing With The Stars. People are not just upset to see an apparently inferior dancer knock out of the contest, a far superior dancer but what is polarizing the DWTS community is the rumor that there is a Tea Party conspiracy working feverishly to make sure that Palin is the ultimate winner.

Dancing with the Stars in 2010 is an abnormality. By and large through the years, even though there have been some gripping eliminations earlier in the contests, by the time we reach the finals, eliminations are basically based on skill.

But Palin and partner Mark Ballas have reliably been positioned near the nadir of the leader board from the beginning of the competition, being in the lower ranks of the contestants for 7 out of 9 weeks, but audience votes have helped the couple outlive high-scorers like Fox and Audrina Patridge, who to the surprise of both judges and viewers were eliminated last week.

The tea party conspiracy theory does appear to have a basis in fact. The Daily Beast website followed Palin's Twitter groups to conservative author Tammy Bruce, who has created "Operation Palin." Bruce has advocated for Palin. Ms. Bruce tweeted before Monday night's show: "Operation Bristol waltzes in tonight! As #DWTS starts vote at abc.go.com Tweeps pls tweet phone info, will RT."

What this means in English is, "Vote early and often for Palin!"

During aninterview with E! News, Palin maintained it's hard work that's kept her in the contest and not a tea party conspiracy. "I work my butt off here," Palin complained. "I rehearse every day. I am totally out of my element here. I think I deserve to be here."

Even the show's producer, Conrad Green, told Bloomberg that "it's entirely possible" that Bristol Palin may be garnering support from her mother Sarah Palin's political supporters and receiving a wave of tea party votes., Mr. Green said that Callers may be behind Bristol Palin "for political reasons."

How is it possible to game the system? According tohillbuz.org when you vote for Bristol and Mark you have to sign up, you can make up email addresses. “As many as you want. But you have to keep signing out…then signing up each time.”

The site explained that “you can start calling the moment the show starts…and you can call as many times as the phone will let you. After that, use someone else’s phone to call the maximum times on that. Then — and I am not telling you to do this — it would not be a bad thing to randomly knock on neighbors’ doors and use their phones and call, call, call, and then call some more."

"Then vote like nuts online with all of your email addresses. If you haven’t heard, the fact we’ve been all doing this for Bristol has been driving the Left NUTS.”

But the show’s executive producer Conrad Green rejected any perception of a immense, right-wing Operation Bristol conspiracy. Green said abc.com verifies IP addresses when reviewing ballots and they (ABC) are experienced enough to obstruct those using fake e-mail addresses. “If you put in phony e-mail messages, you might think you are gaming the system, but the votes are discarded,” Green told the Herald yesterday.

13 year old Palin fan, Adam Tomasi, of Kingston, New York ,a member of the Young American Tea Party said in an interview for the Herald “I know a lot of other Tea Party members support the ideology of Sarah Palin and her 2012 presidential run,” said Tomasi. “Tea Partiers might unite around Bristol just to stick it to the media and show that there’s a lot of support for the Palins.”

Elayne Rapping, a pop culture expert at SUNY-Buffalo says that "It's a game-changer,". Tea party activists on Twitter "are part of a large community that has power, and when this group of people with this power decide to put it in the service of Bristol Palin, it's kind of mind-boggling."

Well the odds are growing that Bristol Palin will be the 2010 winner of Dancing With The Stars. Should that happens DWTS may have seen its last season.

Author: Arthur LewisArthur Lewis is a independent journalist who has written for periodicals in the U.S., Canada, England and Australia. His interests are varied and he is currently "following the waves" in Hawaii.